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Tsar Fish
The Tsar Fish (Russian: Царь-рыба) is a large aquatic mutant encountered by Artyom in Metro Exodus. It may have potentially mutated from a large species of fish, despite it showing overtly reptilian features, It inhabits the Volga river, being worshiped by Silantius and his band of techno-phobic fanatics. The cultists have named it as The Water Tsar. Overview The Tsar Fish is monstrously large and heavily mutated, and seems to have developed another set of fins that almost function as front legs. This allows it to attack prey on the riverbank as well, similar to a killer whale. Despite its massive size, it can easily maneuver through tight spaces. Curiously, the Fish also appears to have developed vocal cords, and has a distinct whale-like call. The Fish also displays remarkable intelligence, as when Artyom is navigating his way through a half-flooded terminal, it deliberately slams into the concrete pillars and walls in an attempt to knock him into the water. While the fish appears to feed on humans and mutants alike, it apparently doesn't hunt shrimp as often, possibly from reasons such as having difficulty digesting its shell and/or avoidance from life-threatening injuries. Metro Exodus The fish first appears after Artyom escapes the Fanatic church on a paddle boat. It attacks Artyom and throws him in the water by flipping his boat over. Luckily, it retreats when it comes under fire from Duke. From that point on, the fish will constantly stalk the river, attacking Artyom if he gets too close, be it with a paddle boat or on foot, by walking close to the shoreline. The fish appears again in a half-flooded terminal while Artyom is attempting to retrieve Krest's railcar. It attempts to knock Artyom into the water by slamming itself into the walls and pillars. It also feasts on humanimals. It is possible to kill the fish once inside the final control room. One must first cut the hanging corpses so they fall into the water, thus luring the fish, and then pull the lever that controls the rail cylinder. Once the cylinder turns, a great amount of debris falls into the water, and the fish is impaled by several metal rebars. Despite these mortal injuries, the fish bursts through the control room wall and lunges at Artyom once more, only to die moments later; from a combination of blood loss & sheer trauma. Trivia *Though the Tsar fish is often referred/speculated to be a giant catfish, it is presumably inspired by the Beluga Sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in the world. In fact, the largest Beluga on record was measured in 1827 in the Volga estuary. It was 7.2 m long and weighed 1571 kg. There's also a possibility that it is a mutated variant of another sturgeon species; or a smaller species of unrelated fish; mutated and enlarged due to mutation. **The reference to catfish could stem from catfish living in the Chernobyl Power Plant's cooling pond, one of the best known animals living in the Exclusion Zone. These fish can grow to a massive size due to a lack of natural predators and fishermen. Also, tourists often toss them pieces of bread and other food while visiting the area. *If the player rescues a group of Tsar Fish cultists, Artyom is given a key for an area of the flooded terminal used by the cultists as a technology dump. In this area a tape recording can be found of a scientist dictating notes about changes to aquatic life from an unnamed chemical, further hinting at the origins of the Tsar Fish. It is mentioned that the chemical was deadly to crustacean reproduction, allowed pelagic fish to grow slightly larger, but due to settling at the bottom of bodies of water the benthic zone fish were most effected, growing up to four times larger. *Despite being a variant of large fish, Tsar fish exhibited reptilian-esque features, such as the slit eyes, elongated mouth and a crocodile-like skin color. **This, along with it's atypical muscular front fins and a dorsal fin that stretches all the way to the tail, could indicate that the Tsar "fish" might not be a fish at all, and could have actually mutated from an aquatic reptile (possibly from a species of newt) instead. *It appears that the Tsar fish is, unexpectedly for a fish, quite intelligent; it displays behavior similar to that of an orca; i.e. sliding onto shore to catch prey on land. It can also jump quite high as displayed in the terminal to catch prey. The Tsar Fish appears to be somewhat domesticated, since you can lure it towards you with a bell. Ringing the bell at the control room of the terminal will lure the Tsar fish towards you, despite it usually relying on ambush tactics that require a considerable degree of intelligence, which has been observed on catfish species, like the invasive catfish in northern USA and Canada, that grow as large as 69 inches in length and are large enough to hunt birds. They lie in wait underwater, until one comes to drink, and jump on their prey similar to how crocodiles hunt large animals like deer or antelopes. *In the Terminal in the same area as the night vision goggles, it is possible to find a recording where a female voice describes effects of some kind of chemical or biological agent on various aquatic species. The substance had an effect on catfish species, greatly increasing the size of the subjected specimen up to about four times it's normal size, indicating that the Tsar Fish might be either a direct (and possibly deliberate) result of this experiment, or came in contact with this substance in terminal after the whole building got submerged. This is also supported by numerous biohazard-marked barrels located in various places throughout the whole terminal. Gallery Ekran Görüntüsü (1483).png|Tsar Fish attacking the player in the flooded terminal. ME Tsar Fish Diary.jpg|An illustation frtom Artyom's diary showing the Tsar Fish. Video Gallery The Tsar Fish Origins in Metro Exodus - Morphology, Lore, Room, Key, Origins and Biology Explained de:Zarenfischru:Царь-рыба Category:Metro Exodus Category:Mutants